Kogan Offers Big Discounts for Apple iPads

Published on Thu 22 Sep 2011 10:55 AM
AEST, by Luke Cliff

Last week Kogan announced that they will be selling the Apple iPad about $150 less than most other resellers. While I'm stunned to hear that they can discount the iPad by so much, I don't think the discount will last long.

In typical Kogan style, CEO Ruslan Kogan sent out a press release about the discount Apple iPad with the words "We think today's announcement will shock and scare the big retailers because we're now attacking the core of their business". The online iPad discounter says it is sourcing these products higher up the supply chain.

While Kogan could be sourcing the products from "higher" up, I'm not exactly convinced the prices will scare other retailers just yet. From my experience there isn't much of a price difference between the Apple manufacturer price and customers price. I simply can't see the iPad discounts to continue much longer.

Apple Don't Discount

It's a known fact that Apple do not sell items at bargain or discount prices. If you have ever shopped around for the best price of an Apple product you should have noticed that the differences in prices aren't that much from one retailer to the next. These close prices are because there's no "profitable" room for retailers to discount the Apple products.

There's no conspiracy amongst retailers to keep the prices high, and given the chance any retailer would break the this "Apple conspiracy pact" for a higher volume of sales. Apple simply don't want vast differences in prices for their products. Apple don't want to be known as a cheap brand. When I see the Kogan online store offering about $489 for something bought for $549 at full price, I know there's a higher cost for Kogan to sell iPads at these prices.

Scaring Bigger Retailers?

Is Kogan going to scare bigger retailers by attacking their core business mentioned above. No, not at all. Retailers are going to sit back and watch, and I suspect Kogan will not be able maintain these big discounts in the future for one good reason.

It's early, but supply chains overseas are starting to deplete stocks for the iPad 2 in lieu of next year, when the new iPad 3 is released. So I don't think it would be hard for Kogan to get a bulk discount at the moment given their buying power. If Kogan is intending to sell Apple products beyond the iPad 2 and early next year, I'm thinking Kogan will drop the discount fluff we see now, and sadly fall inline with all the other online retailers that sell Apple products next year.

If you can sense my slight distaste for the Kogan CEO in this publication you're right. In an article I read at Smarthouse in March 2011, Ruslan Kogan quite verbally stated "The biggest retailers in Australia are Apple's bitch", basically saying that retailers are using Apple products to lure in customers. He went on to say that when Apple (allegedly) stop selling their products in these stores, these "biggest retailers in Australia" will be left with nothing to sell.

While I like the Kogan online store, I personally found the CEO a bit too arrogant to call other retailers "someone else's bitch". So when I hear Kogan is now selling the same Apple products with such a heavy discount to lure in customers, I get a head ache for the hypocrisy of it all.

It's a Big Discount!

Hypocrisy or not that discount is massive ;) and whether or not Kogan can keep discounting the iPads in future doesn't mean a thing if you're shopping for the cheapest iPad 2 online Today and want to save money.

There's no doubt that Kogan is currently selling the cheapest new iPad 2 in Australia and there's no difference in the device or the full Apple warranty. So if you're interested in buying the iPad 2 with a huge discount I wouldn't delay in buying it from Kogan for too long.

I can recommend buying the 3G model. In Australia there still isn't a big uptake of Wi-Fi areas in outer regions of the country. I have a 3G iPad and I've had many times when I couldn't get a WiFi signal and the 3G version had become very useful.

Apple are selling the iPad 2 Wi-Fi 3G version for $729, Kogan are selling the same device for $609 - some $120 cheaper. Below are links and prices to all of the Apple 3G iPads at the Kogan online store. If you're interested in more information about the Kogan online shop checkout our Kogan store page listing.